Although police investigations are still ongoing as to how he ended up on the motorway, police are not ruling out foul play.

Detective Sergeant Tony Hopkins, from the collision investigation unit at Northamptonshire Police, said: “This may have been an accident or something more serious. We need to determine the circumstances that led to his death.

“We can only describe the scene and injuries as catastrophic.

“We can confirm that the body appears to have come into contact with several vehicles on the M1.”

The M1 was closed for most of the day between junctions 16 for Daventry and 18 for Rugby while police carried on their investigations.

Detective Sergeant Hopkins added: “Through our enquiries, we believe that Mr Hayes may have been in the Toddington Services area, in Bedfordshire, at around 1.30am.

“He may have been given a lift from there, or may have hidden himself in a lorry, to enable him to get to where we discovered him.

“We need anyone who was there are the time and may have seen him or witnessed anything suspicious to contact us.

“There will be lorry drivers and other motorists who may have driven this stretch of road and some of them may have dash cam footage. We would urge anyone with any information to come forward.”